Earlier in the week the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research called nation's climate commitments "unambitious" and "paltry", noting that we're well on the way to seeing 3°C temperature rise by 2100. Now the Carbon Disclosure Project notes that the S&P; 100 companies are even falling well short of meeting the weak emission reduction target of 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 proposed by President Obama and Congress. S&P; 100 Companies Going in Wrong DirectionPerhaps that's understating the problem. According to GreenBiz, emissions from the top companies in the United States, despite all the highly-touted efforts to reduce them, are expected to increase at 0.36% per year. By 2020 that's an increase of 3.66% above 2009 levels.

Now keep in mind that to reach the 17% by 2020 goal the President has proposed (which based on the more common and more stringent baseline on 1990 levels is just about a 4% reduction) would require an annual reduction of 1.05%. To hit a target that will actually stop dangerous climate change, as in keeping average temperature rise below 2°C through an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050, requires an annual decline of 3.9%.

Which brings me to the second part of the title.

Greenpeace Won't Oppose Senate Climate Bill - Will Be 'Counterproductive'In an interview with Reuters, Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo calls the proposed Senate climate bill a "baby step in the right direction," adding that "in terms of what the world needs it is...too little, too late."

Which is something that everyone in the green community, even those people working to get the bill passed in the hopes it can be strengthened later, has to admit. Even if they are loathe to do so publicly.

Naidoo went on to say that unlike last year, Greenpeace will not be opposing the passage of the bill, saying "strategically it will just be counterproductive."

Naidoo argued that Greenpeace and other environmental groups concerned with global warming needed to do a better job of mobilizing. He said they needed to make the stakes of climate change more accessible with a rallying cry of safeguarding the future for children instead of saving the planet, he said.

"Right now, I think if we are brutally honest with ourselves, a lot of us talk way above the people," he said, recalling a conversation with his brother who took him to task for talking about temperature degrees, percentages and parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Earlier in the week the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research called nation's climate commitments "unambitious" and "paltry", noting that we're well on the way to seeing 3°C temperature rise by 2100. Now the